NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS 143 



CHAPTER VI 



TO THE TEACHER 



Read to the pupils Emerson's poem " The Titmouse," dwelling on 



the lines, 



" Here was this atom in full breath, 

 Hurling defiance at vast death," etc. 



and the part beginning, 



44 'Tis good will makes intelligence," 

 letting the students learn by heart the chickadee's little song, 



" Live out of doors 

 In the great woods, on prairie floors," etc. 



Poem and chapter ought mutually to help each other. Read the 

 chapter slowly, explaining clearly as you go on, making it finally plain 

 that this mere " atom " of life is greater than all the winter death, no 

 matter how " vast." 



FOR THE PUPIL 

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" The Lilac " : My lilac bush with its suet has become a kind of 

 hotel, or inn, or boarding-house, for the chickadees. 



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Phce-ee-bee! more often the spring call than the winter call of 

 Chickadee. It is to be distinguished from the " phce'be " call of the 

 phcfibe, the flycatcher, by its greater softness and purity, and by 

 its very distinct middle syllable, as if Chickadee said " Phce' ee 

 bee." Phoebe's note is two-syllabled. 



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protective coloration : a favorite term with Darwin and many later 

 naturalists to describe the wonderful harmony in the colors of 

 animals, insects, etc.,nd their natural surroundings, the animal's 

 color blending so perfectly into the color of its surroundings as 

 to be a protection to the creature. 



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card house : as if made of cards, easily pushed, even blown down. 



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the workman's chips : Look on the ground under a newly excavated 

 woodpecker's hole, and you will find his " chips." 



